Google’s head legal counsel has called on the UAE government to create a system in which companies can fail without stigma, to support an entrepreneurial culture.
Addressing a majlis at the Crown Prince’s Court in Abu Dhabi last week, attended by Arabian Business, Kent Walker, global senior vice-president and general counsel at Google, said: “One of the secrets of Silicon Valley is to create a culture of risk and reward.”
The dot-com boom and bust of the late 1990s may have left a “litter” of failed technology start-ups, but those failures ultimately created the successes of today, Walker added.
Entrenched negative cultural attitudes towards corporate failure in the Middle East risk quashing innovation and stifling a burgeoning culture of entrepreneurship in the region.
Decision makers in the UAE must therefore work to implement “safe harbour” policies for the sector, based on fair use and fair dealing. These include flexible data sharing regulations and privacy rules that strike a balance between helping users feel safe and enabling companies to innovate over existing platforms.
Education systems, too, need to foster an entrepreneurial mindset in young people by encouraging them to test out ideas even if they fail.
“One of the roles of government is to encourage people to ‘feel the fire’,” Walker told the assembly of 300-plus delegates at the Bateel Palace majlis, overseen by Sheikh Hamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, chairman of the Crown Prince’s Court and a member of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council.
“A country [and its policies] should make heroes of people who succeed but not villains of people who fail,” he added.
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